Private Information Retrieval for Ethereum: Privacy Layer

The talk explains that light clients need to read Ethereum state without revealing which accounts, contracts, or data they query. Currently, users rely on RPC providers, which creates a privacy gap at the access layer. The speaker frames the problem as building a private read‑access layer and proposes Private Information Retrieval (PIR) as a suitable cryptographic primitive. The presentation maps the PIR design space, compares trade‑offs of various approaches, and evaluates practical performance in settings relevant to Ethereum. It also outlines remaining challenges to making private state access practical.